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Harry Member Member#: 186 Location: Registered: 14-04-2003 Diary Entries: 418 |
30th January 2009 Windsurfing: Ho'okipa Wind Direction: NE Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Scorchio!!! Sea Temperature: Weather: WtW sunshine :) Max Speed: Distance Covered: With a reasonable wind forecast and manageable swell today seemed as good a day as any to face up to the challenge of sailing for the first time at the world's most famous windsurfing beach. I turned up early to be greeted by head+ high sets and what felt like decent 5.2 weather on the beach but held back from rigging up due to the large number of surfers in the break. Stupid local regulations stipulate that if more than 10 of the blighters are present windsurfers aren't allowed on the water. Josh Stone (a poster of whom I have on my bedroom wall...) then rocked up and volunteered to be the guinea pig so I guessed that was my cue to enter the maelstrom. It was a textbook Ho'okipa launch scenario. Plenty of wind out back but mega gusty and flukey on the inside. I wobbled out about 10 yards from the beach and then...flop...no wind...in the drink. With not even enough to waterstart I soon found myself kicking coral in only thigh deep water. I was completely disorientated but figured I was in the hot spot and being sucked very quickly towards the rocks of doom. However a couple of lucky gusts and gaps in the sets meant I managed to make it to the channel, the wind line and the safety of the outside. After that interesting launch experience I sailed very tentatively for the best part of the rest of the session. I quickly worked out that the channel is a happy place to be so on many of my runs in I lined up deep in front of the rocks and close to the magic carpet to the outside. I kicked out early from a lot of the bigger sets but did drop in to a couple of decent boom to half-masters and on these waves I got some idea of why Ho'okipa has earnt its fame. They were clearly far bigger and more powerful than anything else that would have been breaking at any of the other beaches today. Furthermore the flukey wind on the inside was actually a bonus when on the wave - often there was little or no wind on them at all so that they could be purely "surfed" rather than sailed. So I scored a few nice turns but most of the time I was lacking in confidence (as well as skill...) to really go for it. Before long the number of sailors on the water had started to increase to beyond comfortable levels so I decided to quit whilst I was ahead. I was...er..."stoked" that my first Ho'okipa experience was a successful one but I'm not convinced that sailing here is worth the hassle. The waves may be bigger than anywhere else on Maui's north shore but the dodgy launch, the number of other people on the water and the constant threat of ending up on the rocks definitely limited my enjoyment of the sailing today. Maybe with time I will start to desire the challenges that Ho'okipa offers but for now there are plenty of less crowded beaches to sail with almost as if not equally good waves. (e.g. see my next diary entry) |
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